Team USA's Dakota Mathias (31) drives on Team Canada's Jordan Jensen-Whyte (6) in the second half during their World University Games basketball game at Carmel High School Friday evening, August 11, 2017.(Photo: Matt Kryger/IndyStar)

Story Highlights

Purdue totaled 20 steals, led by four from Grady Eifert and three from Vincent Edwards

The Boilermakers surged into halftime off a 36-11 second-quarter advantage.

TAIPEI — Despite three comfortable victories at the World University Games, Purdue basketball had yet to fully lock in at both ends of the floor.

That changed Thursday, and Romania suffered the consequences.

Clean offense bolstered defense. Aggressive defense fueled offense. The Boilermakers, playing as Team USA, ran away from Romania for a 120-62 victory and improved to 4-0 in pool play.

"Right away we wanted to set the tone, make sure we got out to an early lead and establish ourselves offensively an defensively," said freshman guard Sasha Stefanovic, whose 17 points led six players in double figures.

"I think we did that today."

Purdue, the only Pool C team still undefeated, completes pool play against Estonia at 12:30 a.m. Friday. The first tiebreaker for advancement is head-to-head results, and the second is point differential, where Team USA has an almost overwhelming margin. It will be favored to go 5-0 entering Sunday's championship quarterfinals.

Every Purdue player scored, all but one had an assist and all but two had a steal. No one played more than 20 minutes as coach Matt Painter gave extensive second-half minutes to his newcomers in the middle of three games in as many days.

In piling up 19 steals on Romania's 28 turnovers and limiting its opponent to 39 percent shooting, Purdue experienced a defensive breakthrough of sorts.

"We were just trying to be disruptive and not let them have easy angles to the basket or easy catches," said sophomore guard Carsen Edwards, who scored eight of his 14 points in the third quarter. "We'll try to be consistent and do that the next game as well."

The Boilermakers jumped out to a 13-2 lead and never relented. What followed was the team's most complete first 20 minutes of the tournament so far. Team USA shot 67 percent from the floor in the first half, outrebounded Romania 19-10 and pilfered 10 steals.

While Purdue had stagnated a bit in previous second quarter, it outscored Romania 36-11 and coasted into halftime with a 44-point lead.

Purdue came in committing almost 19 turnovers per game, but turned it over only seven times in Thursday's first half. With better ball security, the Boilermakers put themselves in better defensive situations.

"We just shut down a lot of their open lanes and kept the ball in front of us," Stefanovic said. "Every time the went up for an attempted shot we contested it and boxed out and rebounded.

Purdue's perimeter shooting lagged during its stateside exhibitions. However, the Boilermakers hit 19 of 41 (46 percent) behind the arc Thursday, improving to 42.1 percent from 3 during pool play.

"They've got to respect that part of the game, and it just opens up everything else," said Stefanovic, who scored 12 points during the second-quarter surge. "It opens up driving lanes and inside feeds. It helps the offense click, come together."